More than ten years after the outbreak of the Second
Intifada, there are still journalists, former security officials, and
pundits who raise questions about the role of the Palestinian Authority
in the devastating violence during which suicide bombing attacks struck
Israel’s major cities, leaving more than a thousand dead and many more
permanently maimed.

What he has compiled shows:

This body of material, presented here in an unvarnished
way, reveals that Yasser Arafat and important segments of the
Palestinian leadership at that time were directly responsible for what
happened and no amount of revisionist history can exonerate Arafat for
standing behind one of the bloodiest periods in Israel’s modern history.

Halevi of course presented statements of intent. Halevi covers them
beginning with the earliest by Imad Falluji and continuing until Suha
Arafat's latest revelations. I'd like to point out two events that often
escape scrutiny.
The first was a report in Ha'aretz that was captured by IMRA at the time.

Over the past several weeks, the Palestinian Authority
has granted extended vacation leaves to dozens of jailed Hamas and
Islamic Jihad activists, among them militants who were involved in
serious terror attacks against Israel.Ha'aretz: PA granted dozens of
jailed Islamic Jihad, Hamas terrorists "extended vacation"

This was reported September 18, 2000, ten days before Ariel Sharon walked on the Temple Mount.
Also the first reported casualty of the so called "Aqsa intifada" was David Biri, an 19 year old soldier.

Sgt. David Biri died of wounds sustained in a bombing
near Netzarim in the Gaza Strip. Two pipe bombs were detonated
electronically by Palestinian terrorists hiding on the side of the road
as several civilian cars, escorted by an army jeep, drove by.

Sgt. Biri was killed September 27, a day before Sharon visited the
Temple Mount. The manner of his killing showed planning. Clearly there
was already a heightened level of organized violence against Israel
prior to the official beginning of the so called intifada.
It's important to remember that the second intifada was not a
spontaneous uprising against the occupation but a coordinated campaign
of violence against Israel. Now there are suggestions that a new intifada has started.
The New York Times reports Palestinians Dispute Israel’s Findings on a Prisoner’s Death:

“I hold Israel fully responsible for killing Arafat
Jaradat,” added Mr. Qaraka, who earlier on Sunday called for an
international investigation into the death. “The Israeli story was
forged and full of lies.”
The 4,500 Palestinians in Israeli jails refused meals on Sunday to
protest Mr. Jaradat’s death, and hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated
in several cities and villages in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
After days of such demonstrations, which have included violent clashes
between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers and settlers, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s special envoy, Isaac Molho, sent a message to the
Palestinian leadership on Sunday that Israeli officials described as an
“unequivocal demand to restore quiet.” Israel also transferred to the
Palestinian Authority $100 million in tax revenue it had been
withholding.

Later on the New York Times in full sympathy mode reports:

Few issues resonate more deeply in Palestinian society
than the plight of prisoners: about 800,000 have been detained in
Israeli jails since 1967, according to Palestinian leaders; Mr. Jaradat
was the 203rd to die in that time.

Forget for a moment that 203 out of 800,000 is a very small proportion. (Elder of Ziyon noted
that young Palestinians die in Israeli jails at less frequently that
young American die anywhere.) Of course Palestinians weren't simply
arrested en masse to fulfill some sadistic need of Israeli officials.
They were arrested for violations of the law, often violent terrorist
incidents. In fact as the article observed that quite a few in Israeli
jails committed their crimes after Oslo; after the Palestinians promised
to forswear terror. (Many of these violent terrorists - who would never
have been released if they'd been arrested by any other country - were
released in the Gilad Shalit deal in late 2011.) But no New York Times
reporter would write, "The prisoner issue has deep resonance with
Israeli society as many of those incarcerated committed acts of violent
and sometimes deadly terror since the signing of the Oslo Accords." The
only statements evoking sympathy are in support of the Palestinian
narrative.
Finally we get this:

Several leaders and commentators warned Sunday that the
death, coming amid a severe financial crisis in the West Bank, could
lead to extended protests, with most predicting a largely nonviolent
movement of civil disobedience like the one Palestinians undertook from
1987 to 1993 rather than the campaign of suicide bombings that began in
2000.

The first intifada was not nonviolent. It was less lethal than the later one. Throwing rocks and firebombs are not nonviolent.
But now there are those who are trying to explain away the current unrest as another spontaneous "non-violent" intifada and justifying it.
Elder of Ziyon, Israelly Cool and Israel Matzav show different forms that this campaign is taking.
Back in December, Khaled Abu Toameh wrote about the rumors he was hearing from the Palestinian Authority and Hamas:

Both Abbas and Hamas see the two events -- the war in the
Gaza Strip and the UN vote — as "historic achievements" and military
and political victories over Israel.
Emboldened by the "victories," Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal
recently reached a secret agreement on the need to launch a "popular
intifada" against Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian
sources in Ramallah revealed.
The two men believe that such an intifada at this stage would further
isolate Israel and earn the Palestinians even more sympathy in the
international arena, the sources said.

Reporters aren't likely to look past the violence and explain it away,
but past experience shows that the violence is likely orchestrated. The
events of recent months seem to confirm Abu Toameh's reporting.
The Tower (an online news site produces by The Israel Project) observes:

Throughout 2012 senior Palestinian leaders – Fatah,
Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – called for Palestinians to launch
a third Intifada and resume violent attacks against Israel. And as
predicted, recent weeks have seen an uptick in orchestrated
demonstrations and public violence among Palestinians targeting
Israelis, including lynching attempts that reminded Israelis and
observers of the lynchings that marked the beginning of the Second
Intifada.
As early as January of this year, military and security sources in
Israel were reported to have identified an emerging wave of violence
driven in part by Fatah’s failed diplomatic gambits, including those
strenuously opposed by President Obama who repeatedly warned of the
counterproductive danger of the PA’s unproductive diplomatic
maneuvering, and by a deliberate attempt by Fatah leaders to exploit and
provoke the frustration they themselves created...

It’s difficult to say yet what exactly will be on
President Obama’s mind when he heads to Israel next month, but an
all-out push for another futile try to make peace with the Palestinians
may not be on the agenda. It’s likely the president will continue his
advocacy for a two-state solution, but after more than four years of
failure even this administration appears to have gotten the message that
any more effort expended on the peace process will be sunk, as it has
every other time, by Palestinian intransigence. But the Palestinian
Authority, which has ignored every attempt by the Obama White House to
tip the diplomatic playing field in their favor, may be planning its own
little surprise for the president.

And Honest Reporting ties the current news to the Halevi report.
One theme that has emerged from the reporting is that Hamas and Fatah
are in agreement about the escalation of violence. In other words,
Abbas, who has failed to come to a power sharing agreement with Hamas,
has nonetheless found common ground with Hamas in fighting Israel. What
does that say about Israel's "peace partner?"

1 Comments:

"Both Abbas and Hamas see the two events -- the war in the Gaza Strip and the UN vote — as "historic achievements" and military and political victories over Israel."

Normally, such mental loss of contact with reality is followed by a psychiatric diagnosis on these believers as psychotics.

Israel has been far too restrained and decent in it's dealings with it's sworn enemies. In the next wars against the Arabs, wherever they will be fought, it'd be far better if there were no possible doubt afterwards that Israel won. That means a LOT of dead PLO/Hamas/Hezbollah terrorists, especially in the leadership elements, and a LOT of destroyed infrastructure. Israel - Israelis - Jews - will in any case be hated by the terrorist gang leaders and their brainwashed masses. That hate can hardly be increased.

But deterrence can. So, you might as well add fear and an environment of destruction and get the maximum amount of benefit that Israel will get in exchange for the self-pitying rage from your neighbors and political BS that Israel will incur from all The Usual Suspects.

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About Me

I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com